What Will You Do With Jesus? – part 1
Hebrews 10:19-31 (19-25)
November 1, 2015
Earlier in our book of Hebrews
The writer made a strong statement about the word of God.
Hebrews 4:12-13 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
It is a remarkable and yet almost incomprehensible statement
The writer makes that this word is “living and active”
It will cut you deep even to the
Penetration of “soul and spirit, both joints and marrow”
And it will convict you down to the very core of your being
As it is “able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
In short, reading this book is not like reading just any other book.
You can read any other book and really just take it or leave it.
You have the option of just forgetting what you read
Agree or disagree, who cares, it’s just the opinion of some writer
YOU ACTUALLY GET TO BE THE JUDGE
But the Bible isn’t like that at all.
Somehow when you read this book
You find that you aren’t judging it, it is judging you.
• It penetrates the deepest secrets of your heart
• And then begins bring those things to the surface.
• It analyzes what you’ve done and what you’re doing.
• It passes judgment on the integrity and effectiveness of your life.
• And it demands that you give an account for who and what you’ve been.
I’m not gonna lie to you, personally I’m not a big fan of the public invitation at the end of a church service. By in large I do it because Baptists have always done it and that is not a hill on which to die for me.
• It seems to me that too often people are manipulated into emotional responses that many times don’t seem to last.
• In many places they are gimmicky (just a way to measure success)
• Beyond that, the front of a church while a congregation is singing is not the best place to listen and visit with a person who is confused.
However, make no mistake that
Whether a church has a public invitation or no invitation at all,
The Bible emphatically forces one upon you.
You can’t just read this book and go away neutral.
Every verse requires a response from your heart.
And the decision you make has eternal consequences.
Whether you are in church or just reading the Bible on your own,
It forces you to make a response.
You have to do something with it.
And we are now at that point in the book of Hebrews
Where the writer is going to ask for that response.
He’s spent 9 ½ chapters laying out for you the facts
About Jesus what He means to you.
And now he’s about to ask for you to do something with Him.
He’s going to ask you to respond to Jesus.
We are only going to get through half of his invitation here this morning
And there is a reason for that.
The writer lays out for you the only two possible responses you can have.
You can either respond positively to Jesus
Or you can respond negatively to Jesus
You can accept Him or you can reject Him.
This morning we look at the proper response.
• And that is simply to believe in Jesus;
• To come under the blood of His sacrifice;
• To be washed clean from your sin;
• And to enter a relationship with God.
Next week we’ll look at the improper response or the negative one.
• And that would be to choose your sin over Jesus.
• To understand what He did on the cross and choose not to believe it.
• To disregard His sacrifice and to trample it under your feet,
• To tellthe Holy Spirit you don’t want to hear any more about it.
THOSE ARE YOUR ONLY TWO OPTIONS
As Adrian Rogers used to say,
“You will either leave under the blood or on top of it”
Suffice to say, this is a deeply penetrating, convicting,
And serious portion of Scripture.
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH JESUS?
This morning I want to show you
What Scripture says you should do with Him.
Now before we get into the specifics about what you should do,
The writer has a QUICK SUMMARY he wants to give you.
He wants to remind you of exactly what Jesus is offering.
In fact, the writer is about to sum up for you
9 ½ chapters of theology in 3 verses.
He just wants to remind you again of exactly what Jesus did.
(19-21) “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,”
The writer actually uses one word to help you clarify what he is getting at,
And he uses that word twice. It is the word “since”
It’s his way of reminding you of a truth he has already proven to you.
• “SINCE we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus…”
• “SINCE we have a great high priest over the house of God,”
Those are really the two main points to the book of Hebrews.
These are the two things that are true thus far.
1) SINCE JESUS CAN SAVE YOU
“since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.”
By now you are familiar with the “holy place”
It is the place where God dwells.
And every Jew clearly understood that
A person must take blood if he is to enter that place.
The writer of Hebrews showed us that we enter with the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews 9:11-14 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Furthermore since the blood of goats is drastically insufficient to save,
We realize that only through the sacrifice of Jesus
Can anyone enter the real holy place where God actually dwells.
Now granted, entering God’s presence through the blood of Jesus
Was in fact different from what the Jews were used to.
It was “a new and living way which He inaugurated for us”
The priests have been doing it that old way for centuries.
But Jesus took His own blood and entered that veil for us.
And the writer says He entered “through the veil, that is, His flesh”
That is a little bit of a tricky concept.
Certainly the Jews understood the veil to have been that piece of fabric hanging in the temple that separated the holy place from the people.
The writer says it was “His flesh”
All the writer is saying here is that Jesus flesh was a sort of barrier.
(He is reminding you of the necessity of Jesus’ death)
Until His body was killed, (until the veil of His flesh was torn,)
You couldn’t get to God.
• He couldn’t come and teach enough to get you to God.
• He couldn’t come and heal enough to get you to God.
• He couldn’t come and encourage enough to get you to God.
• He had to die.
• His body had to be killed, His blood had to be shed.
If that didn’t happen you still don’t get to God.
In that sense His flesh was like a veil, it had to come down for you to enter
But He was killed.
His body was torn.
His blood was shed.
And He did make atonement before God.
In short, JESUS CAN SAVE YOU
And we’ve spent months seeing that.
2) SINCE JESUS CAN KEEP YOU SAVED
“and since we have a great high priest over the house of God”
Certainly you remember the first 7 chapters of this book.
Certainly you remember the writer’s thorough handling of Psalms 110:4
Psalms 110:4 “The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”
The writer went over, under, around, and through that verse.
He then came to this conclusion regarding Christ.
Hebrews 7:23-25 “The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Jesus can save you and save you forever.
That has really been the heart and soul of the book of Hebrews.
Those are the two undeniable truths the writer has proven to us.
Now the writer is about to ask you what you are going to do with them?
• Since Jesus can save you
• Since Jesus can save you forever
(two things you never received from Judaism)
What are you going to do with Jesus?
This morning let’s look at what a person should do.
There are three ways in which the writer hopes you will respond.
They are easy to spot in the text because they all begin the same way,
With the words “let us”
#1 SINCERE FAITH
Hebrews 10:22
Now do me a favor here and DON’T take your Jewish cap off just yet.
The writer has been writing to Jewish people and so it makes perfect sense
That even his invitation drips of Jewish tradition.
People read that part about being sprinkled clean and washed with pure water
And instantly want to run straight to the concept of water baptism.
(I’m not negating the importance of baptism,
But that is not what the writer is talking about here.)
Over the last couple of chapters
The writer has been engrossed in an Old Testament parable.
We’ve called it “The Parable of the Day of Atonement”
• We looked at that tent
• We looked at that sacrifice
• We looked at that priest going in and coming out
And we saw in it a picture of what Jesus did for us
Hopefully you rejoiced when you realized:
• Jesus finally took an acceptable sacrifice to God on your behalf.
• Through Jesus you have been totally forgiven.
• Christ has made you absolutely, 100% perfect in the sight of God.
BECAUSE what the writer is asking you to do now
Is absolutely absurd if you don’t believe those things.
He is talking to a Jewish man, standing outside the temple,
And he is telling that man, “Go ahead, walk through the veil”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!
• If we go back there God will kill us!
• If we go back there He’ll strike us down!
• We’ll be like Aaron’s sons, incinerated before the Ark of the Covenant
And that would be true, IF you tried to enter that veil as an unholy sinner.
But Jesus forgave you and made you perfect.
So go ahead, walk on in.
That is precisely what the writer is saying
When he says that since Jesus saves us “let us draw near”
YOU CAN NOW GO BEHIND THE VEIL.
YOU CAN NOW WALK RIGHT INTO THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD.
In fact the writer tells you to go in there “with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith”
That is not so different from what he told us earlier.
Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Go on in, draw near to God, and be confident when you go.
BUT KNOW THIS
You can only go there because of what Jesus did.
Jesus cleansed you
Jesus made you holy
And that is why you can go.
That is why the writer says you can go “having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Now keep your Jewish perspective.
(He’s not talking about water baptism here)
No, he’s following the Jewish pattern of the high priest.
We’ve read about how Aaron would perform
The sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.
Let me read a portion of that again:
Leviticus 16:2-6 “The LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. “Aaron shall enter the holy place with this: with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. “He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban (these are holy garments). Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on. “He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. “Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household.”
Before Aaron could go before the Lord what did he have to do?
He had to bathe his body with water
And he had to offer the bull for a sin offering.
The writer just told these Jews, “It’s ok, you can go behind the veil! The sin offering has been given and you’ve been washed”
That’s why he used the word “having”
He didn’t say go get sprinkled and go get washed.
Jesus already did that for you and now you can feel free to enter.
Let me show you what I mean.
TURN TO: JOHN 13:6-11
It is the night before Jesus died and in that upper room
He is showing the disciples what He is accomplishing for them.
He’s going to perform two main symbolic acts.
• He’s going to wash their feet.
• He’s going to institute the Lord’s Supper
You will remember that during the foot washing Peter wanted no part of it.
(read 13:6-11)
That is the washing the writer of Hebrews is referring to.
Jesus sprinkled His blood to forgive us and cleanse our conscience,
He washed us with His word to make us clean.
Ephesians 5:25-26 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,”
Jesus has made you acceptable, so go ahead and enter that veil!
Now I don’t have to tell you For a Jew it would take “a sincere heart”
And “full assurance of faith” to do that.
There’s no way they enter unless they really believe
Jesus has made them acceptable.
But that sincere faith is precisely what the writer says they should have.
SO… based on what Jesus has done for you
And His ability to save you and keep you saved.
You should respond with sincere faith.
You should believe in Him
And you should, through Him, draw near to God.
So let me ask you,
• Do you believe Jesus died?
• Do you believe His sacrifice is sufficient to satisfy God?
• Do you believe Jesus has forgiven you and made you perfect?
• Do you believe that enough to bank your life on it?
(That’s what a Jew was doing if he entered that veil, he was banking his life)
I hope you do because that is the proper response.
Sincere Faith
#2 UNWAVERING HOPE
Hebrews 10:22
Here is the second “let us” statement.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering”
Well, what is “our hope”?
• It is that in Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
• It is that in Jesus Christ we are made perfect.
• It is that in Jesus Christ we are secure.
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”
But what does the writer want you to do with this hope of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus?
He wants you to “hold fast” to your “confession” of it.
THAT MEANS NEVER STOP BELIEVING IT.
Listen, we talk a lot about God’s sovereignty and that even in regard to salvation.
That God elects and God chooses and God saves and God seals
But there is not an honest Bible student anywhere in the world that would say
That God will save you if you fail to believe or if you fail to endure.
It is that irreconcilable tension in Scripture.
God is sovereign and yet man is responsible
As my favorite preacher said, “I’m ok with a little ambiguity here. I know there is a great difference between what I can know and what God does know.”
Yes we do believe Jesus saves forever
And that His children cannot lose their salvation.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Scripture says
That child is still responsible to endure to the end.
In fact, a failure to endure, does not indicate salvation that is lost,
But rather it indicates salvation that was never real.
1 John 2:18-19 “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”
And that is what the writer is referring to here.
When you come to God, you have to come in real faith.
• And real faith never quits
• Real faith never lets go of hope
Jesus said:
Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”
And again:
John 8:31 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;”
The writer of Hebrews is asking for this kind of genuine faith.
BELIEVE
• Even when the Jews start to pressure you
• Even when trials come because of your faith
• Even when difficulties in life cause you to wonder what God is doing
What are you to keep believing?
“for He who promised is faithful;”
What is that promise He is referring to?
• Well, He took an oath in Psalms 110:4 that He send a priest who could save forever.
• He made another promise in Jeremiah 31 that He’d send a new covenant that would offer forgiveness and intimacy with God.
Do you believe God will keep those promises?
Do you believe Jesus will intercede for you?
Do you believe Jesus can and will save you forever?
Then “hold fast”
Don’t back up, don’t retreat, don’t give in.
In short, the proper response to Christ
Is to genuinely believe and to keep believing!
So Jesus can save you and save you forever,
What are you going to do with Him?
You should offer SINCERE FAITH and UNWAVERING HOPE
#3 EVIDENT LOVE
Hebrews 10:24-25
There’s your third “let us” statement.
Only this one (like the second) doesn’t so much speak of
How you initially respond to Jesus
As much as it does how you live after you respond.
See a relationship with Jesus should change your life.
If it doesn’t, then you don’t have a relationship with Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
This is one of the biggest obstacles the church has
In witnessing to a lost and dying world.
It is the fact that we have so many people
Who claim to be Christians
But their lives don’t validate their claim.
They claim to be Christians but they don’t have sincere faith
They claim to be Christians but they don’t have unwavering hope
They claim to be Christians but they don’t’ have evident love
Look, if the fruit of the Spirit are not evident in your life
Then it is evident that you don’t have the Holy Spirit.
And if you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you are not a Christian.
For God freely gives the Holy Spirit to all who genuinely believe.
The writer is talking to those who claim to be genuine believers
And now telling them to put their money where their mouth is.
“and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,”
“stimulate” is word in the Greek that literally means
“provocation” or “sharp disagreement”
The NIV says “spur one another on”
In other words do whatever it takes to make sure
Your brother doesn’t fall short of what God expects.
Do you see a brother who isn’t walking in love?
Do you see a brother who isn’t doing good deeds?
Do you see a brother who is falling away?
Then go be a true brother to him and spur him on to do it right.
This, by the way, is love.
If your toddler was playing with a loaded gun, would you take it away?
But they’ll cry if you take it away from them?
They’ll pout if you take it away?
Well, if you love them, you’d better.
And that is true of believers as well.
Love your brother enough to encourage him.
And to this end the writer gives some pretty practical advice.
(25) “not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
I know, I’ve heard it.
“I don’t believe you have to go to church to be a Christian”
True, you can go to church your whole life and still not go to heaven.
But, it’s hard to claim to love your brother
And to be concerned about his spiritual well-being if you never go.
You might be able to prove to me that you love Jesus
Even if you never go to church.
(It’d be a tall order, but I’m not saying it’s impossible)
But I don’t know if you can prove to me
That you love your brother if you never go.
And that’s a problem.
1 John 3:13-16 “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
1 John 4:20-21 “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”
And the writer of Hebrews is pretty clear that you can’t do that
If you are always skipping the time when your brothers assemble.
If you truly believe in Jesus
You ought to have a hope that endures
And a love for your brother
That will sacrifice for his spiritual well-being.
And of course you do understand that he is referring to more than just sitting silently beside your brother in a pew for 1 hour.
INVEST IN YOUR BROTHER’S LIFE
So do you want to sum up what the writer wants you to do with Jesus?
HE WANTS YOU TO TRUST HIM
• Trust Him so much that you’ll draw near to God through Him.
• Trust Him so much that you never quit, even when it’s hard.
• Trust Him so much that you never let your brother quit either.
That’s what you should do with Jesus.
Since He can save you and since He can save you forever.
I told you earlier I’m not necessarily a fan of invitations at the end of every service, but that doesn’t mean I’m not in favor of you making a decision.
You have to make a decision.
You have to decide what you will do with Jesus.
And today in your heart you will either decide yes, I believe Him,
Or no, I don’t want Him.
Now don’t be confused by what we do in church.
Sometimes people think that the way to accept Jesus
Is to walk an aisle and pray with the pastor.
No
You accept Jesus in your heart
You believe or you don’t believe right where you are in your heart
Then why the aisle walking?
• This time is for those who need to make their decision public.
• This time is for those who want the world to know what they’ve decided.
And if you’ve decided to believe in Jesus and to follow Him,
• The first thing you need to do is confess Him publicly.
• The second thing you need to do is be obedient in baptism as the Lord commanded.
That is what this time is for.
If you believe and you need to make it known.
So this morning we have our time of response.
• If throughout this study of Hebrews
• You have seen what an awesome and capable Savior Jesus is
• And you have decided to trust Him,
Then I would ask you to come forward
And make that decision known to the church.
I would ask you to come and say,
“I believe in Jesus and I need to be baptized.”
Now, others in here have been visiting with us for a while, and that’s ok.
I don’t want anyone to join a church where God has not led them.
But, being a member of local congregation is an important thing.
Making a commitment to those around you matters.
THAT IS ALSO WHAT THIS TIME IS FOR:
• If you believe in Jesus
• If you’ve already confessed Him
• If you’ve already been baptized
• But God is leading you to commit to this body of believers
Then the way people join this church
Is by coming forward and making that statement.
So we’ll have a time of response.
You follow the direction of the Lord.
Hebrews 10:22-25 “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
